Jerry B. Cohen

Jerry B. Cohen died on 7 November 1999 at the age of 67. He graduated at MIT, took his PhD in the Metallurgy Department of MIT in 1957 and spent one year in Professor Guinier's laboratory in Paris with a Full­bright scholarship (1957–1958). He then joined the Materials Science and Engineering Department at the Technological Institute of Northwestern University, where he made his whole career, becoming full Professor in 1965. He was very active in the life of the University and, during his Chairmanship from 1973 to 1978, the Department of Materials Science and Engineering expanded significantly as a result of his policy. He became Dean of Engineering in 1980 and remained at that post until 1 September 1999. He was awarded many prestigious medals and was many times Chairman of important Committees or Societies. In 1982 he was elected President of the American Crystallographic Association and, from 1976 to 1981 he was Co-editor of the Journal of Applied Crystallography.

A renowned specialist of diffraction methods and of their application to materials science and metallurgy, he made important contributions, inter alia, to the study of order–disorder, particle-size effects, dislocation mechanisms, and the measurement and role of residual stresses in alloys. He is the author or co-author of over 315 publications and several books.

I met Jerry during our MIT years and he was always a very dependable friend. I remember with pleasure the happy days I spent visiting him and his wife Lois at their home in Glencoe. He had a sharp mind and an excellent judgement; whenever I needed a referee who did not hesitate to speak his mind for a difficult manuscript, I knew I could call on him. He will be sorely missed by his family and all his colleagues and friends.